Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2004 Issue
More Intriguing Americana From David Lesser Antiquarian Books
none
Item 158 is An Address, Delivered Jan. 29, 1837....on the Centennial Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Paine.... This address, delivered in Shalersville, Ohio, by Dr. Samuel Underhill, praises Paine for helping rescue humanity from ignorance and superstition. He speaks of the importance of Paine's book to America, despite "the black and calumniating ingratitude of that people who had received his first and greatest services." $500.
Late in life, Henry Clay, returned to the senate in an attempt to heal the growing divide between North and South. In 1850, he spearheaded the Compromise of 1850. That series of bills enabled California to enter the Union as a free state, but also opened the possibility of new slave states, and strengthened fugitive slave laws. Ultimately, it probably did more to assure the dissolution of the Union than preserve it, but it did succeed in putting the issue off for a few more years. Clay returned to his home state of Kentucky and gave this address: Mr. Clay's Speech. House of Representatives of Kentucky, November 14, 1850. He spoke about the negotiations involved to pass the compromise, and, as to whether he would ever consent to dissolution of the Union, "I answer never-never-never." Clay was already 73-years-old at the time, and "The Great Compromiser" would only live another two years, never having to witness the collapse of his great efforts to avoid war. Item 39. $250.
The Beginning of the end of the compromises can be viewed from the Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, Convened at Charleston, S.C., April 23, 1860. The Whig Party had already collapsed over the slavery-abolition split, leaving the Democrats as the sole remaining national political party. That would come to an end at this convention. Though Stephen Douglas led in votes to become the party's presidential nominee, he was unable to secure enough to capture the nomination. The southern delegates would secede from the party, and after a second failed attempt to reach a compromise in Baltimore a few weeks later, the split of the Democrats into Northern and Southern factions would be sealed. It would open the door for the young Republican Party, a party strictly of the North, to sweep to victory behind a candidate named Abraham Lincoln. Item 68. $450.
Item 28 is The Brooklyn Water Works and Sewers. A Descriptive Memoir. A memoir of the Brooklyn sewers? I guess anything can have a memoir, but I'll hold my nose for this one. The date is 1867. $650.
